


Years

by Blue_Sundays



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Buck Begins, Firefam Feels, Implied/Referenced Time Travel, Multi, Reunions, World War 2 references, slight pining from Eddie because I can't not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24535357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Sundays/pseuds/Blue_Sundays
Summary: The two needed their alone time, no matter how weird it was that Buck seemingly had a long lost lover in the form of a ninety year old woman.What if Buck was a time traveller?
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Years

_ ‘Mayday, Mayday, this is Captain James Buckley. I’m going down, I repeat I am going down.’ _

*

The station was unusually quiet today, no fires or rescuing cats from trees, not even a call to help an old lady cross the road. Eddie Diaz stretched out across the orange sofa, phone in hand as he lazily scrolled through endless apps. They’d been inside all day, and at first it had been kinda nice having a day to breathe a little but Eddie grew restless easily and his team were the same. Why else would they do what they did? Still, the television echoed quietly in the background as Bobby puttered around the kitchen and Hen and Chimney stock checked the ambulance for the fourth time that day. Buck was… somewhere. Eddie wasn’t sure where his best friend had scuttled off to. Buck had been distant all day, a stray look in his eyes when he thought no one was watching or fingers endlessly tapping on whatever surface he happened to be next too. Eddie had tried to ask Buck earlier in the day if he was okay but the blond firefighter played a mean game of hide and seek, and Eddie hadn’t seen the man in a few hours.

His eyes threatened to shut down any moment, and Eddie felt the phone slipping from his hand. Footsteps interrupted the much needed doze though and Eddie groaned as he sat up groggily on the sofa, maybe Buck was back? He was wrong. Instead of the 6ft2 firefighter he was expecting, an old lady had hobbled her way up the steps. She stood over Eddie, fingers trembling ever so slightly and a slightly fearful look on her face. He leapt up immediately and held back a groan as he plastered a smile on his face.

‘Good afternoon ma’am, is everything okay?’ Eddie held his hand out to the woman and hoped he’d been nice enough for her to relax a little bit. She smiled and Eddie watched closely as her shoulders, slightly hunched, relaxed and she looked up at him with bog blue eyes and a grin. 

‘Thank you,’ she paused and looked down at Eddie’s badge. ‘Mr Diaz, I’m looking for a firefighter?’

‘Call me Eddie, ma’am. Will any firefighter do or are you looking for someone specific?’

The woman hesitated a moment, looking down at her hands where she idly fiddled with a pocket watch. 

‘Buckley. I believe he goes by Evan Buckley now.’ 

She pushed a stray piece of white hair from her face and smiled nervously at Eddie as he nodded and led her over to the dining table with a promise that ‘Evan’ would be with her shortly. Eddie suspected that Buck was probably napping in the bunk rooms if he wasn’t in the gym so that’s where he headed first, leaving all thoughts of the mysterious woman, who may or may not be Buck’s grandmother, behind.

*

_ ‘This is Captain Buckley to Base, I have crash landed. Coordinates suggest I am right off the coast of South America. Requesting an evac team, copy?’ _

_ ‘This is Captain Buckley to Base, come in. Captain Buckley to Base, do you copy?’ _

_ ‘This is James Buckley. If you can hear me, I have been hit. I repeat I have been hit. Requesting an evac team. Do you copy?’ _

_ ‘This is… fuck it. You can’t hear me, can you?’ _

*

He crumpled the second he saw her. Buck, that is. Eddie felt the way Buck’s weight suddenly fell back on to him as if he was knocked back by something large. The old woman shakily stood from her seat at the table, Eddie could see the way tears pooled at the corner of her eyes and a wistful smile landed on her face. His chest felt tight and Eddie felt like he was intruding on something special. It was almost like a lovers’ reunion, if the woman didn’t look like she was in her early nineties.

‘Mallory?’ So that was her name. 

Buck stopped in his tracks and looked Mallory over in one sweeping glance before slowly making his way over to her. Eddie’s stomach twisted, Mallory wasn’t Buck’s grandmother.

The two finally met at the table and Buck ushered for Mallory to sit back down. She refused Buck’s fussing despite him towering over. 

‘It really is you, Jamie.’

Jamie? Mallory’s words were quiet, as if Eddie wasn’t meant to hear them. Still, as Eddie slowly made his way back to the sofa and pulled out his phone, he couldn’t help but to eavesdrop, especially after hearing her call Buck ‘Jamie’.

‘Of course it’s me, Lory.’ 

Buck had finally managed to get Lory into one of the chairs. He kneeled in front of her as she held his face in his hands and inspected him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the two press their foreheads together. They spoke quietly now and Eddie strained to hear their quiet catch up.

‘I never...leave...behind.’

‘...wondered for years… happened’

‘..plane went down… near South America… Japs shot us…’

‘...supposed… grow old together...Jamie...’

Their voices grew quieter as if they’d picked up on Eddie’s eavesdropping but he couldn’t help but watch the pair as Mallory held Buck’s hands tightly in hers and held them close against her chest. Eddie couldn’t see Buck’s face but the gentle shaking of his shoulders told Eddie everything he needed to know. 

The two needed their alone time, no matter how weird it was that Buck seemingly had a long lost lover in the form of a ninety year old woman. Eddie wouldn’t judge. Love was love and maybe one day he would let Eddie in on what happened with Mallory. But for now he was content to retire to the gym for the time being. 

*

_ ‘The Jenny Lee’s just gone.’ _

_ ‘What do you mean she’s gone? How can she just disappear like that? Has anyone been in contact with Buckley?’ _

_ ‘We’ve tried sir. No answer.’ _

_ ‘Someone better tell his wife.’ _

*

Mallory had left hours ago. The team had met her after they’d both had their little reunion. Buck had introduced her as a friend of his Grandmother’s and Eddie tried not to grimace at the way Mallory’s smile dimmed. She was ninety-five now and had outlived her husband by seventy-five years. She’d never remarried after she’d lost him in the war - two months before Japan signed the peace treaty. Mallory regaled them with a story or two about her ‘Jamie’ who’d flown Lockhead P-80s and had vanished somewhere in the Pacific. He was twenty-four.

She’d ducked off before dinner and Eddie watched as Buck’s shoulders slumped down and he grew distant once more. Maybe now wasn’t the time to ask about who Mallory really was to Buck but he could at least be there for him; maybe not to hold his hand but to bump shoulders, distract him with video games or show pictures of Christopher. 

They were the only two left in the rec room when Buck whispered it. The words were so quiet that Eddie subconsciously leaned in closer to the blond firefighter. 

‘I thought I’d gone crazy when I first got here,’ he sighed and stretched as he stood up. ‘Cordless phones, colour television and fast food. And smoking kills, who woulda thunk. Night Eddie.’

*

He finds an article later that night. Something so deep in the archives that it’d taken Eddie hours of searching through ‘James Buckleys’ to find it.

  
  


**U.S. Fighter Pilot Vanishes Amidst War Effort in the Pacific**

**Published July 13, 1945**

Wednesday this week U.S. Fighter Pilot Captain James Evan Buckley was declared Missing In Action after disappearing near the Pacific Islands. Captain Buckley, 24, was promoted three months ago and fought since 1942, where he first served in the war in Europe as a co-pilot on the Blue-Belle, a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress Bomber Plane. He was widely known for being one of the first pilots to fly the Lockhead P-80s. 

Captain Buckley is survived by pregnant wife Mallory Buckley, 20, and parents Irene and James Buckley Snr. He will be awarded a post-hostumous medal in appreciation of his services to the country.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I realised after I wrote this that I didn't factor Maddie into my weird little time travel headcanon so make it up I guess? Maybe she figured out how to create a time loop OR maybe she's actually his great-granddaughter? 
> 
> Lockhead P-80s are fighter jets. They were first flown in 1944.
> 
> Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress is a type of four engined bomber plane created in the late 1930s - if you've ever seen thing film 'Memphis Belle' it's that plane. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :)


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